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Luvachicken

A real fancy for egg shell

By Luvachicken, in Chickens, Eggs and Hatching

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Luvachicken Chuckling Chook

Luvachicken

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I save all my egg shells and grind them in an old baby food processor.

I then put them in one of those galley pots and then it gets eaten - but it goes so fast.

I can't see any on the floor, it is definitely eaten.

In fact, I watched Poppy and she was there for ages eating it. And when I first put it in there, it is almost like some really exciting new treat and they can't get enough.

They have a separate pot of grit too.

 

How much egg shell should I be giving them and how much should they really be eating ?

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Mum All Knowing Superchicken

Mum

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To be honest, I've never measured :oops:

 

I tend to put mine in a dish and then, when the oven is on, bake them, grind them, add them to their feed and it just gets eaten as part of their ration of food!

 

I do know it is good for them - adding back extra calcium.

 

Just keep doing what you are doing and don't worry about it.

 

Some people worry that feeding back egg shell can turn chooks into egg eaters: that is not my experience.

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Jenny Smedley Frequent Layer

Jenny Smedley

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Hi,

 

The law is that any foodstuffs that have been prepared in a domestic kitchen aren't supposed to be fed to hens- all to do with salmonella & other nasties.

 

Have a look at this link - http://www.defra.gov.uk/animalhealth/Illegal-feeding/index.html

 

I must admit any left over pasta ,rice or salad stuffs in our house gets given to my hens. On cold days I also warm up porridge & mix in raisins etc.

 

I guess that doesn't help much!

 

Jenny

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Jenny Smedley Frequent Layer

Jenny Smedley

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Hi,

 

I can't get that link to work so I have emailed Defra directly & asked . I'll keep you posted as to what they say & whether I need to pack my bags for a prison stay!!

 

I'm hoping that it all depends on the numbers of hens you have-over a certain number , 50 I think, you have to register with Defra anyway - and whether you sell the eggs or not.

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Mum All Knowing Superchicken

Mum

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Well I didn't know that...I shall start saving and ovening tomorrow.

 

Someone on the forum mentioned feeding their chooks the left over sunday veg...I thought it was illegal to feed chickens kitchen s"Ooops, word censored!"s...can someone put me straight?

You are right, it is "illegal" according to DEFRA. But I'm a lateral thinker ... how are they going to Police it? :wink::shh:

 

It dates back to the Mad Cow's Disease outbreak in the '90's. Around that time, catering waste was fed to livestock and it has something to do with feeding back animal foodstuffs back to livestock? (It's early, I'm old, memory isn't sharp - yet!)

 

Anyway, there is good logic behind it and even in a domestic kitchen there is a risk of cross contamination, so I believe it is precautionary advice. As I say though, how would they "Police" it?

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Mum All Knowing Superchicken

Mum

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How long do you bake the eggshells for? Am thinking I'll do this :D

If I have space in the oven while I'm cooking something else, 15 minutes will do it (it's just basically drying them out). Or, I might put them in straight after I've turned the oven off and let the residual heat dry them out - but, like Cheeky Chooky, I'm also prone to forget when I do it that way :oops:

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Mum All Knowing Superchicken

Mum

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I'd heard about this and was going to start a thread asking how long to bake them for, so Thank You for answering that one for me :dance:

You don't *have* to wait for the oven to be on - that is simply an economy when it is; you can microwave them for a minute (or two) and get the same result.

 

I'm a "reluctant" microwave-er, simply because, at this time of year, my oven heats the kitchen (which is "oh-so-cold", brr) so having the oven on makes the whole house warmer. If the oven doesn't go on, it's the microwave method.

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jennym Frequent Layer

jennym

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I think :? that egg shell and oyster shell serve the same purpose - calcium. This is referred to as 'soluble' grit. They also use insoluble grit for grinding food in their crops - I think that's a fancy name for dirt, to be honest.

 

I'm pretty sure there's no problem with leaving as much of both out for them as you want - they will eat it when they need it. I don't bother with insoluble grit as they are on dirt, so I'm hoping that does the job, but I do give them oyster shell.

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